Review: Grisham's 'Painted House' brightly done

"A Painted House"
By John Grisham
Doubleday
Fiction
400 pages

By Jonathan D. Austin
CNN.com writer

(CNN) -- American readers can be a fickle lot, lauding authors who manage to churn out book after book after book in the same genre, all with interchangeable characters and villains.

But if an author -- especially one who has stuck with a formula and gotten mightly rich off the hordes of fans -- strays outside the lines, it is done at risk of the highest caliber: that of being ignored.

John Grisham took a risk writing "A Painted House." It should not be ignored, regardless of the fact that he dares to write a novel with not one lawyer, no courtroom setting, and nary a stress-wound scene of avarice, greed or corporate skullduggery.

	EXCERPT
Excerpt: 'A Painted House'

OK, there is a knifing. Satisfied?

With "A Painted House" Grisham tells a tale of rural America; a story of youth and ambition, of dreams and aspirations. In doing so he has produced a story accessible to readers of all ages, with a protagonist as engaging as Billy Coleman in "Where the Red Fern Grows" or (dare I say it?) Scout Finch in "To Kill a Mockingbird."

It's a darned good tale, to boot.

High cotton and baseball

Inspired by Grisham's own childhood, "A Painted House" takes place in rural Arkansas. Seven-year-old Luke Chandler lives with his parents and grandparents in a farmhouse surrounded by 80 acres of cotton. It's September 1952, and the cotton -- "waist-high to my father, over my head" says Luke -- is ready to pick.

That means hiring migrants; a truckload (literally!) of Mexicans and a family from the Ozarks to help harvest it.

For the next six weeks cotton is the sole focus not only on this farm but for everyone in the community, though the Chandler men all manage to make time to hear broadcasts of St. Louis Cardinal games on the radio.

John Grisham

Luke can't help but love the game; it's in his blood. As he explains about his grandfather:

"Though he was a quiet man who never bragged, Eli Chandler had been a legendary baseball player. At the age of seventeen, he had signed a contract with the Cardinals to play professional baseball. But the First War called him, and not long after he came home, his father died. Pappy had no choice but to become a farmer."

And for this season, at least, it appears the Chandlers might harvest a bumper crop. But first they must get the cotton bolls out of the fields and in town to the gin.

Grisham's best work

Battling the heat, the rain, the fatigue, and often each other, the Chandlers and their hired help struggle to bring in the crop. As the weeks pass, Luke finds himself engulfed in adult situations, forced to keep secrets that threaten not only the crop but his family's safety and their standing in the community.

Simply put, this is John Grisham's best work.

Do I miss his courtroom tales? I enjoyed those that I read, but after about "The Chamber" they began to feel recycled.

I'm glad I paid attention when "A Painted House" came along. It's a captivating novel that deserves to be read.

Judges find trouble behind bars in latest Grisham novel
January 12, 2000
Grisham ranks as top-selling author of decade
December 31, 1999

John Grisham home page
Doubleday (Random House)

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